Roamings of a Leo: Santa Fe, New Mexico: Allan Houser

Colleen and I spent a week in Santa Fe exploring the historic capital founded in 1610. The seven thousand foot high city has warm days and cool nights in the summer with Monsoonal lightning shows and rain in the early evening.
One of my favorite Southwest artists is Allan Houser Haozous, a sculptor who was born one hundred years ago. His father was imprisoned with Geronimo in 1886 when captured by the U.S. Army. He spent 27 years in prison in Florida and then in Oklahoma. Allan was born in Apache, Oklahoma where his father married a woman 20 years younger after he released from prison. Allan began sculpting as a young man and went to school at an Indian Arts School in Santa Fe. He later taught and finally retired to his acreage Near Santa Fe where he created sculptures full time until his death in 1994. His sons Phillip and Bob have followed in his footsteps.

Although I was unable to visit the Houser sculpture garden outside of Santa Fe, I did visit the Houser gallery in town as well as a special "Footprints" exhibit celebrating Houser's birth anniversary. The "Footprints" sculpture display recognized the inspiration and influence of Allan Houser. It is located on Museum Hill, just outside of Santa Fe in front of the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture.

Here are some of the works of Allan Houser and his sons Bob and Phillip Haozous. His sons chose to keep the name of their grandfather, Sam Haozous, and not use the Americanized name of Houser that Allan used.